Art Professor's Works On View At Uf Gallery

August 28, 1988|By Laura Stewart, Sentinel Art Critic

''Blackboards,'' a new exhibit of paintings by John O'Connor, will be on view through Sept. 26 in the Art Department Gallery at the University of Florida in Gainesville. The artist has likened his works to drawings on ancient cave walls, recording a journey taken ''to explore the mystery of illusion and reality'' through humor, paradox and riddles. O'Connor, who has taught at the university since 1969, served as acting chairman of the UF Art Department during the 1987-88 school year. Admission is free to the gallery on the third floor of the Fine Arts Building at 13th Avenue and Southwest Fourth Avenue in Gainesville; hours are 8-11:45 a.m. and 1-4:45 p.m. Monday through Friday. Details: (904) 392-0211.

An exhibit of 55 black-and-white photographs by noted American photojournalist Arthur Rothstein will open Saturday at the Tampa Museum of Art. The show includes such well-known images as ''Dust Storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma (1936),'' an atmospheric portrait of downtrodden victims of Dust Bowl days, and the 1980s ''Montage of Nine Presidents.'' The works by the late artist, who received more than 35 photojournalism awards and was a juror for the Pulitzer Prize, illustrate his interest in photography as ''a truly universal language, transcending all boundaries of race, politics and nationality.'' The exhibit will remain in the museum at 601 Doyle Carlton Drive through Oct. 30, and admission is free. Hours are 1-5 p.m. Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday through Saturday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Wednesday. Details: (813) 223-8130.

Among the architects and architectural firms whose designs are scheduled to be featured through Oct. 4 in an exhibit at University of South Florida galleries in Tampa are I.M. Pei, Peter Eisenman, Arquitectonica and SITES. They were chosen for ''Modern Redux: Critical Alternatives for Architecture in the Next Decade'' by Newsweek architecture critic Douglas Davis, who organized the show for Independent Curators Inc., a touring-exhibit service. Admission is free to ''Modern Redux,'' which will be in USF's Teaching Gallery and Theater Lobby Gallery. Hours at the Teaching Gallery are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday; hours at the Theatre Lobby Gallery are 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Details: (813) 974-2848.

Works by four Florida artists will be on view through Oct. 1 in ''Perceptive Perception,'' the new exhibit at the Florida Center for Contemporary Art in Tampa. They are Nancy Bauer Dillen of Satellite Beach, Sue Liska of Orange Park, Richard Ramsdell of Sarasota and Ellen Watson Weiman of Tampa. Admission is free to the gallery at 1722 E. Seventh Ave., and hours are 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Details: (813) 248-1171.